“On Mice and Expert Judgement”: A Critical Note

The aim of this article is to denounce the combination of experts judgements on the one hand and the left-right axis on the other. This, more and more polular practice is totally wrong and fallacious for three reasons. (1) ethical : it is based on lazyness and ignorance, (2) empirical : most European party systems are the product of cross-cutting cleavages, (3) statistical : they are neither scales nor means of measurement. The choice for political scientists is simple and obvious in what measurement is concerned : either psychometric scales or bullshit scales... Scientifically speaking there is no choice !